1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to roof door devices of a motor vehicle, and more particularly to roof door devices of a type which has a roof door hinged to the roof of the vehicle to open and close a roof side opening which is positioned above and merged with a side door opening of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to facilitate egress and ingress of a passenger, some motor vehicles are equipped with a roof door device which has a hinged roof door operable to open and close a roof side opening positioned above and merged with a side door opening. Upon egress or ingress, both the side door and roof door are opened to provide the vehicle body with a larger or vertically enlarged opening for the passenger. This type roof door device is very convenient when a handicapped person, aged person or person having a hat on uses the vehicle because the person needs not largely bend his or her body upon leaving or entering the vehicle. One of such roof door devices is described in Japanese Utility Model First Provisional Publication No. 62-16021.
However, the roof door devices hitherto proposed have failed not only to achieve shorter assembly time and thus reduced production cost but also to exhibit satisfactorily smoothed operation.
Particularly, in the roof door device disclosed by the Publication, a separate latch device is used along with a roof door operating device. As is apparent, mounting the two devices to the vehicle roof results in greater assembly time and thus greater cost. In fact, the assembly of them must be made by checking and adjusting the positional relationship therebetween.